When was the last time you felt good?

I mean really felt satisfaction, or JOY.. Happiness in your soul..belly-laughed?

How do you sleep?  LIKE A BABY?  or were you restless?

I talk a lot here about flowers and herbs, ways to make yummy oils and serums, delicious mists and shimmery lip balms.

I flirt with flowers and share with you that journey with the hope that I inspire even one soul to stop and smell the roses.

maybeevenpicksomeandmaketea

maybe

What I am really hoping to accomplish is to remind us all (me too) that feelings, feeling good, what we think and how that makes us feel is ONE: the most important thing ever and TWO: provides us all the control and freedoms we ever could possibly need.

Its a slightly different way to live, and exist and navigate our lives.

For a while it will seem very foreign.

We are all so used to focusing on negative, ugly things.  We are so conditioned to argue for our limitations.  

WE are used to the fight. We are comfortable with discomfort.  WE become numb to joy and happiness and only feel scattered moments of it and when we do its exhilarating but then we so easily slip back into the negative soup.

We simply should not be willing to accept feeling lousy in our bodies for as long as we do.  We just set ourselves up for stress, and dis-ease.

When we feel lousy it is so hard to be positive.  It is so so hard to think the thoughts that take us where we really want to be, where our hearts desires are.  Instead we think limiting thoughts that only serve to attract more limiting experiences.

The most incredible factor here is that this entire journey is up to each of us.

We may not be able to avoid it when we blow a tire, or a boss is insensitive.  We may not be able to get a cranky co-worker to move on, or an irritating neighbor to leave the zip code.

WE CAN, however, decide how we look at it.  We can choose what we think and our internal monologue.  THAT IS COMPLETELY ON US.

FEELING better is one very strong tool for changing the whole direction of that wave.

I know it is sooo tempting to chew and gnaw on what was said or what that lady did on the freeway.  We can keep that tornado brewing all day.. easily.  We can tell those stories over and over and over again and guess what … more will come.

Is that what we really want?

NOOO.  No we don’t.  It doesn’t feel good.  As a matter of fact it feels LOUSY.  Unless you enjoy stress and tension and anxiety, and headaches and grouchy neighbors, or parking tickets or bad restaurant service, or crappy wi-fi service, ill-health and a frustrating life in general is what you prefer, then by all means, feel lousy. Misery loves company as they say, so you will be in good company.  You will continuously run into ill feeling miserable folks all day long and you can commiserate together, and many of us do.  We all have from time to time.  I suppose there is some funky satisfaction in it.  There IS a reward for joining in on this frequency and I think I will slate that down for a future post.  Commiserating with other planet dwellers, all gnawing on that bone of victimization and rejection is the norm it seems.  Its a dance I see all over, sad as it is to watch.  BUT DOES IT FEEL GOOD? NO.

SO

This is why I do what I do.

It wasn’t the original drive, just my love for health and happiness was.  Yet the more and more I expand and learn and grow and liberate my own life I see very clearly that the single most rewarding component of what I do and what I grow, what I make and what I share and what I eat and what I strive for in my career, what I watch on TV and what I do on my weekends, what I read and what share with the people I share it with, is that it FEELS GOOD!

The single most important factor in all of this is that it FEELS GOOD.  It feels good to see my flowers grow and bloom.  It brings me joy to see my garden blooming, picking peppers and zuchinni and a few herbs for our meals.  It makes me GIDDY to see my roses and now Hibiscus bud up, bloom (oh its picture time), and then its harvest time.  All the phases bring me joy as I then prepare my natural ingredients for this or that health and beauty product that what….MAKES ME FEEL GOOD. It is so SATISFYING, and that too, FEELS AMAZING.

I am so happy to share how to’s and my latest creations.  I LOVE handing my family and friends pretty jars of goop and oils to see what they love and what can be tweaked a bit.

I love making gifts, knowing every single ingredient was made with care and picked specifically for healthy skin, body and mind.

I love taking care of my family with my creations.  I love our bedtime routine.  I love my holistic pet care routines.  .  I love being a MOM and I love the events of each day.  My entire universe has grown and expanded in ways that I am still trying to fathom!

So what is at the basis of it?

Feeling good!

So that doesn’t mean its easy or that I always run around like a bliss bunny..onlyonmondays

Mondays are my favorite

I love my morning routine.  I love getting up before the world does and getting my day rolling on the right path.  I love my Mama time before the day gets going.  I love that first cup of coffee and hearing all the birds wake up.  I love it all.

Not all mornings start this way though.  Not every moment has that luxurious feel to it.  Some mornings the dogs go all cukcoo because a gopher is nearby.  Some mornings I laze in my warm bed and a noisy truck bangs by our house.  Sometimes that is all it takes to get my heart pounding and my frustrations vomiting out of my brain like a tornado.

I stop it as fast as I can, but sometimes it still comes.   Traffic delays and edgy customers start to arrive on the scene.  It is almost comical how fast the proverbial bottom feeders show up as soon as I let anything vexing take hold.

OH HELLO.  There you are.  Welcome.  now go home.

I have my unfortunate triggers like anyone who roams this planet long enough to experience anything worth experiencing.  Triggers they may be, but that doesn’t mean I need to pull on them and shoot holes in my day.

NOPE. NOT WORTH IT.

Nothing I don’t want in my life is worth focusing on.  Mere seconds is all it gets. Mere moments before I choose to look away, find Freak-a-Zoid on my playlist, and find my happy groove.  Nothing is more satisfying than that.  Nothing brings more deep satisfaction than knowing I CHOSE to walk away and turn my focus on what FLOATS my BOAT than give any attention to whatever, has shown up in my spaces that is no longer part of my path.  NOTHING is more liberating, or more freeing than that single commitment to myself, my future, my family, my life and ME.  The commitment to feel good, that commitment to joy and bliss and soaring to new heights I only once dreamed of.

** True Story, once someone I work with asked me why I don’t watch the news.  Before I even thought about it, I just shrugged and said I dunno, it doesn’t feel good.  Nothing good is on there.  Just fatal car crashes and flu outbreaks, shootings and ugly politics.  Nothing ever feels good.  I got a very short lecture on how am I supposed to know whats happening out there and I again, shrugged my shoulders and wondered why someone would choose to start their day with such an ugly vibration?**

to me, that is the single worst thing you could do before stepping out the door and driving to work (or wherever you go).  See some horrible story how people were robbed or what outbreak of something horrible is plaguing this city or that.  who died in car crashes or rising gas prices.  THAT sounds like the dumbest thing to fill your head with before getting in your car and getting on the freeway, and then spending your day with tons of people.  

I would rather appreciate my garden, enjoy the smiles and hugs and morning waffles with my young man, plan our evening meal with my man, any weekend plans that are in the making, make the pups some yummy breakfast they go all ape over, pack my lunch and head to work early so as to get a jump on the day’s stack of projects that need sorted out, customers to help, meetings to attend and the overall smiles, hello’s, and office family I have developed over the 28+ years of office life.  the News only leaves me with a stomach ache.

..and then there is my secret weapon.  THE FEEL GOODS.

All the self soothers.  all the million of tools in my tool belt for just such an occasion…

Hot baths and candles, walks alone where the roses bloom, jokes with my mini-man, chats with my mama or my Dad, family is so perfectly soul lifting.  Pandora dance channels, and weeds, oh a good weed pulling will cure anything gone amiss.  Jasmine-rose mist, massages, and mani-pedis.  A long drive in my new car!!! woot.  Journal writing, and sketching something sweet, snuggles and fires in the fireplace, something sappy on Hallmark Channel, a million books I have in my Kindle, facials infused with all manor of herbal goodness so I look refreshed and glowing when I wake up, home baked cookies and hot soup fresh off the pot, gosh conversations with any of my lady loves and lunch dates with friends, beach walks, motorcycle rides, planning trips, and menus for bbq’s.. mmmm  NAPS

…

Pick one, pick three.  Find anything that can soothe that rough spot in your day and feel the shift. SMILE. BREATH. LAUGH (oh a good laugh cures it all)

Tell Siri to play your favorite guilty pleasure song and find something to appreciate.

You have in a very short period of time, calmed your heart rate, dropped your blood pressure, you have changed your perspective and deactivated a vibration that could have easily riddled your day with more and more of the same useless vibration. YAY YOU.  Find inner chatter that uplifts you and move on from whatever brought you down.

Look forward now to better things appearing and leave behind any trace of the meh that crossed your path earlier, no matter what it was. It’s old news. It’s old energies. It’s just old.

Appreciate the fact that because of that flat tire, or the gnarly customer’s baseless threats caused you to be aware that IT DID NOT FEEL GOOD and that it also reminded you to do something that did.  Revel in knowing that you have all the power you need to re-create a world to your liking, nah a world you LOVE with all your HEART.  Revel because you can change everything.  You can re-write your story if you don’t like the old or current one.

Throw that old book away, burn it, never look back.

It’s the old shoe and it does not fit anymore. All it does is blister.

Get a fresh blank sheet of paper and imagine a world full of wonder and awe, full of color and joy, bliss and deep deep love.

Write that story and then watch it show up.

But before that, FEEL GOOD.  FEEL HAPPY.  FEEL APPRECIATION. FEEL  SATISFACTION. FIND JOY AND LAUGHTER.  TAKE DEEP BREATHS. TAKE NAPS. TAKE IT EASY.  EAT CHEESECAKE and DRINK WINE.  TAKE WALKS on the BEACH. TAKE WALKS with your PUPS.  GIGGLE with your LITTLES.  WATCH SILLY SHOWS with THEM.  STOP your busy WORLD and SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THEIR EYES.  CALL YOUR MOM or your DAD or your BROTHER or your SISTER.  have LUNCH with your GIRLFRIENDS and KISS YOUR BOYFRIEND, WIFE, HUBBY… your SIGNIFICANT OTHER.

But most of all.. just FEEL GOOD

xo